Consolidation of responses from queries to disparate data sources

ABSTRACT

Consolidation of disparate data source queries is provided. An application intake component can receive an application package file, and process the file to identify one or more actions and entities for the application. A natural language processor component can receive an input audio signal to identify an action and an entity on which to perform the action. An application delivery component can identify applications that can perform the action and applications that have access to the entity, and then select an application that is configured to perform the action on the entity. The application delivery component can provide an indication of the application selected by the system to a client device.

BACKGROUND

A server can receive a request for information. The server can route therequest for information to numerous databases or servers in order toobtain the requested information.

SUMMARY

The present technical solution is generally directed to consolidatingresponses from queries to disparate data sources. At least one aspect ofthe present technical solution is directed to a system to consolidatedisparate data source queries. The system can include a data processingsystem. The data processing system can include one or more processorsand memory. The data processing system can include an application intakecomponent, a natural language processing component, and an applicationdelivery component. The data processing system can receive applicationpackage files. The data processing system can receive the applicationpackage files from a plurality of developer computing devices. Theapplication package files can include instructions to distribute andinstall a plurality of applications on a plurality of computing devices.Each of the application package files can be associated with anaction-inventory file. The data processing system can process theaction-inventory file to identify one or more electronic actions themobile application performs. The data processing system can process theaction-inventory file to identify corresponding one or more entities onwhich the mobile application performs the one or more electronicactions. The data processing system can receive, via an interface of thedata processing system and a network, data packets comprising an inputaudio signal detected by a sensor of a client device. The dataprocessing system can parse the input audio signal to identify an actionand an entity on which to perform the action. The data processing systemcan select, based on the action-inventory file, a first one or moreapplications of the plurality of applications configured with access tothe entity identified from the input audio signal and configured toperform the action identified in the input audio signal. The dataprocessing system can provide, to the client device, an indication ofthe application selected by the data processing system to cause theclient device to initiate execution of the application to perform theaction using the entity identified in the input audio signal.

The data processing system can identify a first one or more applicationsconfigured to perform the action identified from the input audio signal.The data processing system can select, from the first one or moreapplications and the second one or more applications, an applicationconfigured to perform the action and access the entity identified fromthe input audio signal.

At least one aspect of the present technical solution is directed to amethod of consolidating disparate data source queries. The method caninclude the data processing system receiving application package filescomprising instructions to distribute and install a respective pluralityof applications on a plurality of computing devices. The applicationpackage files can each be associated with a respective action-inventoryfile. The data processing system can receive the application packagefiles from a plurality of developer computing devices. The method caninclude the data processing system processing each action-inventory fileto identify one or more electronic actions the respective applicationperforms and corresponding one or more entities on which the mobileapplication performs the one or more electronic actions. The method caninclude the data processing system receiving, via an interface of thedata processing system and a network, data packets comprising an inputaudio signal detected by a sensor of a client device. The method caninclude the data processing system parsing the input audio signal toidentify an action and an entity on which to perform the action. Themethod can include the data processing system selecting, based on theaction-inventory file, a first one or more applications of the pluralityof applications configured with access to the entity identified from theinput audio signal and configured to perform the action identified inthe input audio signal. The method can include the data processingsystem providing, to the client device, an indication of the applicationselected by the data processing system to cause the client device toinitiate execution of the application to perform the action using theentity identified in the input audio signal.

The method may include one or more of the following features. The methodcan include the data processing system identifying a first one or moreapplications configured to perform the action identified from the inputaudio signal. The method can include the data processing systemselecting, from the first one or more applications and the second one ormore applications, an application configured to perform the action andaccess the entity identified from the input audio signal. Identifying asecond one or more applications configured to perform the actionidentified from the input audio signal. Providing an indication of theapplication selected by the data processing apparatus can comprise:selecting, from the first one or more applications and the second one ormore applications, an application configured to perform the action andaccess the entity identified from the input audio signal; and providingthe application selected from the first one or more applications and thesecond one or more applications. Receiving the action-inventory filecomprising an extensible markup language file. Receiving theaction-inventory file comprising a pointer to a list of entities.Receiving, for at least one of the plurality of applications, theaction-inventory file comprising a uniform resource locator to a webpage established via a developer computing device; and determining aninventory of entities from the web page of the developer computingdevice. Receiving, for at least one of the plurality of applications,the action-inventory file comprising a uniform resource locator to webpage comprising a structured markup of entities; accessing the web pagevia the uniform resource locator; parsing the web page with thestructured markup of entities to identify an inventory of entities;associating, in a database, the inventory of entities with the at leastone of the plurality of applications. Identifying, from the input audiosignal, the application; and selecting the application based on thefirst one or more applications, the second one or more applications, andthe input audio signal. Executing a web search via a search engine basedon at least one of the action and the entity identified from the inputaudio signal; and identifying at least one of the first one or moreapplications or the second one or more applications based on results ofthe web search output by the search engine. Executing a web search via asearch engine based on at least one of the action and the entityidentified from the input audio signal to identify a second plurality ofapplications; ranking each of the second plurality of applications; andselecting a highest ranking application from the second plurality ofapplication as the application for which to provide the indication tothe client device. Executing a web search via a search engine based onat least one of the action and the entity identified from the inputaudio signal to identify a second plurality of applications; scoringeach of the second plurality of applications based on performancefeedback associated with the action; and selecting a highest scoringapplication from the second plurality of application as the applicationfor which to provide the indication to the client device. Executing aweb search via a search engine based on at least one of the action andthe entity identified from the input audio signal to identify a secondplurality of applications; scoring each of the second plurality ofapplications based on historical preference information associated withthe client device for the action; and selecting a highest scoringapplication from the second plurality of application as the applicationfor which to provide the indication to the client device. Identifyingthe entity from the input audio signal based on a graph databasecomprising a hierarchical taxonomy of entities each having a uniqueidentifier formed of a domain, type and property. Identifying the entityfrom the input audio signal based on a graph database comprising ahierarchical taxonomy of entities each having a unique identifier formedof a domain, type and property; and identifying the first one or moreapplications or the second one or more applications based on a websearch using the entity. Identifying the entity from the input audiosignal based on a graph database comprising a hierarchical taxonomy ofentities each having a unique identifier formed of a domain, type andproperty; identify, via a database, a set of actions configured for theentity; and identifying the second one or more applications based on theset of actions configured for the entity.

It will be appreciated that aspects can be implemented in any convenientform. For example, aspects may be implemented by appropriate computerprograms which may be carried on appropriate carrier media which may betangible carrier media (e.g. disks) or intangible carrier media (e.g.communications signals). Aspects may also be implemented using suitableapparatus which may take the form of programmable computers runningcomputer programs arranged to implement the invention. Aspects can becombined such that features described in the context of one aspect maybe implemented in another aspect.

These and other aspects and implementations are discussed in detailbelow. The foregoing information and the following detailed descriptioninclude illustrative examples of various aspects and implementations,and provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature andcharacter of the claimed aspects and implementations. The drawingsprovide illustration and a further understanding of the various aspectsand implementations, and are incorporated in and constitute a part ofthis specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. Likereference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate likeelements. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled inevery drawing. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a system to consolidate disparate datasource queries, in accordance with an implementation.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an operation of a system to consolidatedisparate data source queries, in accordance with an implementation.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a method of consolidating disparate datasource queries, in accordance with an implementation.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a general architecture for acomputer system that can be employed to implement elements of thesystems depicted in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and the method depicted in FIG.3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Following below are more detailed descriptions of various conceptsrelated to, and implementations of, methods, apparatuses, and systems ofconsolidating disparate data source queries. The various conceptsintroduced above and discussed in greater detail below may beimplemented in any of numerous ways.

The present technical solution is generally directed to consolidatingdisparate data source queries. For example, applications can execute ona computing device. The application can be developed, created orotherwise provided by a third-party developer via a developer device.The application, such as a mobile application, can be configured toexecute or perform certain types of actions on certain types of datafiles, resources, or other content. For example, a mobile applicationcan be configured for execution on a mobile computing device such as asmartphone to perform an action such as “play” on a digital orelectronic resource such as a music file. The mobile application can bereferred to as a music application. Developers can provide various typesof applications, such as video player application, music playerapplication, augmented reality application, news applications,electronic book applications, video game applications, recipeapplications, ticket purchasing applications, clothing applications,e-commerce applications, or ride sharing applications, for example.

The application or mobile application can execute on a computing deviceor mobile computing device. The application can execute partially on thecomputing device and partially on a data processing system. Theapplication can execute on the data processing system and receive inputfrom the computing device. For example, a data processing system canreceive an input audio signal (e.g., voice input) from a computingdevice, and parse the input audio signal to identify an action (e.g.,play music) and an entity (e.g., a particular artist or song) on whichto perform the action. Applications can refer to applications on variousplatforms, including different types of mobile devices, computingdevice, operating systems, conversational applications, or chatbotapplications.

However, it can be challenging for the data processing to determinewhich application can perform the action, as well as which applicationhas access to the entity. For example, each application or developer ofthe application can store electronic data files in a different databaseor data repository. Each application or developer of the application canindicate the types of actions the application can perform using one ormore techniques. The indication of the action and electronic data filesor entities on which the action can be performed can be in variousformats or locations. Thus, it can be challenging for a voice-basedcomputing environment to receive an input audio signal with a request toperform a type of action on a certain entity to efficiently, accurately,and reliably select an application that can perform the type of actionon the requested entity.

For example, application developers may not semantically specify thefunction of their application (e.g., play movies, get news, order food,or order a ride) and provide an inventory for the entities theirapplication works on (e.g., movie names). This makes it challenging fora data processing system to select, trigger or suggest theseapplications when an input audio signal from a use requests performanceof certain tasks or action via a digital assistant.

Thus, systems and methods of the present technical solution can solvethe technical problem of matching action providers to user queries byproviding information relating to intents that applications can serveand associated inventory, and use this inventory while searching for theprovider to serve the user query. This technical solution can also beused to perform entity pivoting in order to pivot on actions based onthe entity specified in the user requests. For example, if a user asksabout a height of a musician, the data processing system may provideaction based suggestions related to musician such as play music, showmusicians recent online posts, buy tickets for the musician.

To do so, the data processing system of the present technical solutioncan combine or consolidate structured data feeds and web pages to (1)match queries to corresponding providers, and (2) generate entity-basedapplication action recommendations. For example, for a given entity, thedata processing system can recommend applications that explicitlyprovide actions for an entity (e.g., via feeds) cross-ranked withapplications associated with web pages that are related to the entity.To do this, the data processing system can combine or consolidateresults from various processes, techniques, infrastructures, or datasources including, for example: parsing or natural language processingto identify entities from a user query; web search techniques toidentify entities from web content and feeds; structured data feedscontaining uniform resource locators (URLs) or deep links to theapplication; knowledge of a level of relatedness a given entity instructured feed item or a web page has to the query; or indexes of webURLs to corresponding deep links to the applications.

The data processing system can combine these infrastructures in aconfiguration driven way to determine when and how to search thesesiloed data sources and to combine the results of these distinct datasources, re-rank the results, match the results to application developerprovided inventory specification to understand the intent the result issatisfying (e.g., GET_RECIPE or PLAY_MOVIE) to create a sorted list ofagents or applications which can fulfill the user requests. The dataprocessing system can further improve the suggestions by filtering therecommendation to only applications that are installed on the clientdevice. Since each data source or vertical within a data source may havea different request and response format, the data processing system canreceive from the application developer devices a specification forcreating the requests from user query and user context using a set ofconfigurations. The application developers can use the configurations toconvert the responses into a common format for further processing. Thus,the data processing system can combine structured data feeds andunstructured data feeds; (2) use any knowledge graph to process queriesacross any vertical; and (3) provide any type of fulfillment for anytype of device. The techniques described herein can allow a device toonly open applications that are able to fulfil a request. Opening anapplication on a device typically utilizes significant computerresources and by first determining whether an application is able tofulfil a request before opening the application, the subject matterdescribed herein can reduce computer resource utilization.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 for consolidating disparatedata source queries. The system 100 can include content selectioninfrastructure. The system 100 can include a data processing system 102.The data processing system 102 can communicate with one or more of adeveloper computing device 106 or client computing device 104 via anetwork 105. The network 105 can include computer networks such as theInternet, local, wide, metro, or other area networks, intranets,satellite networks, and other communication networks such as voice ordata mobile telephone networks. The network 105 can be used to accessinformation resources such as web pages, web sites, domain names, oruniform resource locators that can be presented, output, rendered, ordisplayed on at least one computing device 104, such as a laptop,desktop, tablet, personal digital assistant, smart phone, portablecomputers, or speaker. For example, via the network 105 a user of thecomputing device 104 can access information or data provided by adeveloper computing device 106. The computing device 104 (or clientdevice) may or may not include a display; for example, the computingdevice may include limited types of user interfaces, such as amicrophone and speaker. In some cases, the primary user interface of thecomputing device 104 may be a microphone and speaker. The computingdevice 104 can interface with or be included in a voice-based computingenvironment.

The network 105 can be used by the data processing system 102 to accessinformation resources such as web pages, web sites, domain names, oruniform resource locators that can be presented, output, rendered, ordisplayed by the client computing device 104. For example, via thenetwork 105 a user of the client computing device 104 can accessinformation or data provided by the developer computing device 106. Thenetwork 105 can include or constitute a sub-network of informationresources available on the internet that are associated with a contentplacement or search engine results system, or that are eligible toinclude third party digital components as part of a digital componentplacement campaign.

The network 105 may be any type or form of network and may include anyof the following: a point-to-point network, a broadcast network, a widearea network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, a datacommunication network, a computer network, an ATM (Asynchronous TransferMode) network, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network, a SDH(Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a wireless network and awireline network. The network 105 may include a wireless link, such asan infrared channel or satellite band. The topology of the network 105may include a bus, star, or ring network topology. The network mayinclude mobile telephone networks using any protocol or protocols usedto communicate among mobile devices, including advanced mobile phoneprotocol (“AMPS”), time division multiple access (“TDMA”), code-divisionmultiple access (“CDMA”), global system for mobile communication(“GSM”), general packet radio services (“GPRS”) or universal mobiletelecommunications system (“UMTS”). Different types of data may betransmitted via different protocols, or the same types of data may betransmitted via different protocols.

The system 100 can include at least one data processing system 102. Thedata processing system 102 can include at least one logic device such asa computing device having a processor to communicate via the network105, for example with the computing device 104, developer computingdevice 106 (e.g., content provider). The data processing system 102 caninclude at least one computation resource, server, processor or memory.For example, the data processing system 102 can include a plurality ofcomputation resources or servers located in at least one data center.The data processing system 102 can include multiple, logically-groupedservers and facilitate distributed computing techniques. The logicalgroup of servers may be referred to as a data center, server farm or amachine farm. The servers can also be geographically dispersed. A datacenter or machine farm may be administered as a single entity, or themachine farm can include a plurality of machine farms. The serverswithin each machine farm can be heterogeneous—one or more of the serversor machines can operate according to one or more type of operatingsystem platform.

Servers in the machine farm can be stored in high-density rack systems,along with associated storage systems, and located in an enterprise datacenter. For example, consolidating the servers in this way may improvesystem manageability, data security, the physical security of thesystem, and system performance by locating servers and high performancestorage systems on localized high performance networks. Centralizationof all or some of the data processing system 102 components, includingservers and storage systems, and coupling them with advanced systemmanagement tools allows more efficient use of server resources, whichsaves power and processing requirements and reduces bandwidth usage.

The system 100 can include, access, or otherwise interact with at leastone developer computing device 106. The developer computing device 106can include at least one logic device such as a computing device havinga processor to communicate via the network 105, for example with thecomputing device 104, or the data processing system 102. The developercomputing device 106 can include at least one computation resource,server, processor or memory. For example, the developer computing device106 can include a plurality of computation resources or servers locatedin at least one data center. The developer computing device 106 caninclude one or more component or functionality of the data processingsystem 102. The developer computing device 106 can include or refer toan application developer device, service provider device, or goodsprovider device. The developer computing device 106 can be used todevelop the applications. The developer computing device 106 can be usedto partially develop the application. The developer computing device 106can be used to provide the application to the data processing system102. The developer computing device 106 can be used to otherwisefacilitate providing the application or providing a functionalityassociated with the application.

The computing device 104 can include, interface, or otherwisecommunicate with at least one sensor 134, transducer 136, audio driver138, or pre-processor 140. The sensor 134 can include, for example, anambient light sensor, proximity sensor, temperature sensor,accelerometer, gyroscope, motion detector, GPS sensor, location sensor,microphone, or touch sensor. The transducer 136 can include a speaker ora microphone. The audio driver 138 can provide a software interface tothe hardware transducer 136. The audio driver can execute the audio fileor other instructions provided by the data processing system 102 tocontrol the transducer 136 to generate a corresponding acoustic wave orsound wave. The pre-processor 140 can be configured to detect a triggerkeyword, predetermined hot word, initiation keyword, or activationkeyword. In some cases, the trigger keyword can include a request toperform an action. In some cases, the trigger keyword can includepredetermined action keyword to enable or activate the computing device104, and the request keywords can follow the trigger keyword or hotword. The pre-processor 140 can be configured to detect a keyword andperform an action based on the keyword. The pre-processor 140 can filterout one or more terms or modify the terms prior to transmitting theterms to the data processing system 102 for further processing. Thepre-processor 140 can convert the analog audio signals detected by themicrophone into a digital audio signal, and transmit one or more datapackets carrying the digital audio signal to the data processing system102 via the network 105. In some cases, the pre-processor 140 cantransmit data packets carrying some or all of the input audio signalresponsive to detecting an instruction to perform such transmission. Theinstruction can include, for example, a trigger keyword or other keywordor approval to transmit data packets comprising the input audio signalto the data processing system 102.

The client computing device 104 can be associated with an end user thatenters voice queries as audio input into the client computing device 104(via the sensor 134) and receives audio output in the form of a computergenerated voice that can be provided from the data processing system 102(or the developer computing device 106) to the client computing device104, output from the transducer 136 (e.g., a speaker). The computergenerated voice can include recordings from a real person or computergenerated language.

The data processing system 102 can include a content placement systemhaving at least one computation resource or server. The data processingsystem 102 can include an online application delivery platformconfigured to select, deliver or provision applications for execution orinteraction by a computing device 104. The application can execute onthe computing device 104, at least partially on the computing device 104and partially on the data processing system 102, or entirely on the dataprocessing system 102 such that input and output of the application areprovided via the computing device 104 but the application otherwiseexecutes on the data processing system 102. The application can executeat least partially on the developer computing device 106.

The data processing system 102 can include, interface, or otherwisecommunicate with at least one interface 110. The data processing system102 can include, interface, or otherwise communicate with at least onenatural language processor component 112. The data processing system 102can include, interface, or otherwise communicate with at least oneapplication intake component 114. The data processing system 102 caninclude, interface, or otherwise communicate with at least oneapplication delivery component 116. The data processing system 102 caninclude, interface, or otherwise communicate with at least one datarepository 118. The at least one data repository 118 can include orstore, in one or more data structures or databases, application package(APK) files 120, index 122, entities 124, performance data 126, orprofiles 128.

An APK file 120 can refer to an application package kit or applicationpackage file or other application-related file. The data processingsystem 102 can store, in data repository 118, APK files for multipleapplications. The data processing system 102 can store one or more APKfiles for each application the data processing system 102 is configuredto deliver to computing devices 104. APK files 120 can distribute andinstall application on a computing device. APK files 120 can be in aformat configured for the distribution of the application from a dataprocessing system 102 to a computing device 104 for installation on thecomputing device 104. An application can have one or more APK files 120in one or more formats. For example, a single application can have anAPK file 120 in a first format configured to distribute the applicationusing a first delivery platform for installation on a first type ofcomputing device 104; and a second APK file 120 in a second formatconfigured to distribute the application via a second delivery platformto a second type of computing device 104. The APK file 120 can includeinstructions, source code, executable code, machine readable code,scripts, functions, images, audio files, video files, or configurationfiles. The APK file can include instructions (or code) to facilitatedistribution and installation of the application.

The APK file 120 can be associated with an action-inventory file. Theaction-inventory file can be part of the APK file 120. Theaction-inventory file can be provided as part of or with the APK file120. For example, the developer of the application can provide theaction-inventory file along with the APK file 120 for the application.The action-inventory file can be a separate file and separate from theAPK file 120. The action-inventory file can be associated with the APKfile 120 (e.g., included as part of the APK file 120, having anidentifier that matches or corresponds to the APK file, linked via areference or uniform resource indicator to the APK file 120, via apointer, or mapped or linked to one another in an index). Theaction-inventory file can indicate actions the application can perform.The action-inventory file can indicate the entities on which theapplication can perform the indicated actions. The action-inventory filecan include a pointer, URI, URL or reference to another data sourcecontaining information about the entities on which the application canperform the indicated actions. The action-inventory file can includedeep links to the entity within the application. The action-inventoryfile or APK file can include a pattern used to construct a deep link tothe entity in the application.

The index 122 stored in data repository 118 can include a mapping ofapplications to actions. The index 122 stored in data repository 118 caninclude a mapping of applications to entities. The index 122 stored indata repository 118 can include a mapping of actions to entities. Theindex 122 can include deep links to entities of the application todirect the application to the entity or open the entity upon launchingor opening the application. The index 122 can be updated periodically,based on a time interval, or responsive to other event or condition,such as intake of a new application or an updated application or newinventory (e.g., entities). The data processing system 102 can maintainthe index 122 on the data repository 118 on the data processing system102. In some cases, the data processing system 102 can maintain an index122 for a computing device 104 in local memory of the computing device104, such as in a local index 122 stored on the computing device 104.The local index 122 can include, for example, information about entitiesthat may be available or stored on a local computing device 104 to whichthe data processing system 102 may not have access otherwise, or thatthe data processing system 102 can access via the computing device 104.

The data processing system 102 can store entities 124 or indications ofentities 124 in the data repository 118. An indication of an entity canrefer to or include a unique identifier of the entity. The uniqueidentifier can include, for example, alphanumeric values, strings,characters, numeric values, or domain, property and type information. Anentity can be a single person, place or thing, and the repository caninclude millions of entities that each have a unique identifier todistinguish among multiple entities with similar names (e.g., a Jaguarcar versus a jaguar animal). A data processing system 102 can access areference entity and scan arbitrary pieces of text (e.g., text in webpages, text of keywords, text of content, text of advertisements) toidentify entities from various sources. One such source, for example,may be an entity graph system 142. The entity graph system 142 caninclude a manually created taxonomy of entities such as an entity graphof people, places and things, built by a community of users. The dataprocessing system 102 can interface, access, or otherwise communicatewith the entity graph system 142 via network 105.

The data processing system 102 may use entities to select applicationsto perform on action on the entity in multiple ways. The data processingsystem 102 can obtain a classification of a plurality of entities. Anentity may be a single person, place, thing or topic. Each entity has aunique identifier that may distinguish among multiple entities withsimilar names (e.g., a Jaguar car versus a jaguar animal). A uniqueidentifier (“ID”) may be a combination of characters, text, numbers, orsymbols. The data processing system may obtain the classification froman internal or third-party database via network 105. In oneimplementation, the entities may be manually classified by users of auser device (e.g., computing device 104). For example, users may accessthe database of entities via network 105. Users may upload at least oneentity or upload multiple entities in a bulk upload. Users may classifythe uploaded entities, or the upload may include the classification ofat least one entity. In some implementations, upon receiving an entity,the data processing system 102 may prompt the user for a classification.

In some implementations, entities can be classified. Classifications mayindicate the manner in which entities are categorized or structured,e.g., ontology. For example, an ontological classification may includeattributes, aspects, properties, features, characteristics, orparameters that entities can have. Ontological classifications may alsoinclude classes, sets, collections, concepts, or types. For example, anontology of “vehicle” may include: type—ground vehicle, ship, air craft;function—to carry persons, to carry freights; attribute—power, size;component—engine, body; etc. In some implementations, the manualclassification includes structured data that provides a manually createdtaxonomy of entities. Entities may be associated with an entity type,such as people, places, books, or films, for example. Entity types mayinclude additional properties, such as date of birth for a person orlatitude and longitude for a location, for example. Entities may also beassociated with domains, such as a collection of types that share anamespace, which includes a directory of uniquely named objects (e.g.,domain names on the internet, paths in a uniform resource locator, ordirectors in a computer file system). Entities may also include metadatathat describes properties (or paths formed through the use of multipleproperties) in terms of general relationships.

The data processing system 102 or an administrator of the entity graphsystem 142 may classify an entity based on a domain, type, and property.For example, a domain may be American musicians and have an ID “/music”.This domain may be associated with a music type with ID“/music/pop_music”. This type may include a property for pop musicmusician “/music/pop_music/musicians”. Each domain, type, property orother category may include a description. For example,“/music/pop_music” may include the following description: “Music refersto a vocal or instrumental sound and pop music can refer to currentcommercial popular music.” In some implementations, the data processingsystem 102 can scan text or other data of a document and automaticallydetermine a classification. For example, the data processing system 102may scan information resources via network 105 for information aboutmusicians, and classify that information as“/music/pop_music/musicians/female_musicians”. The data processingsystem 102 may further assign the entity female musicians a uniqueidentifier that indicates a classification.

Entities may be classified, at least in part, by one or more humans(“entity contributors”). This may be referred to as manualclassification. In some implementations, entities may be classifiedusing crowd sourcing processes. Crowd sourcing may occur online oroffline and may refer to a process that involves outsourcing tasks to adefined group of people, distributed group of people, or undefined groupof people. An example of online crowd sourcing may include anadministrator of an entity graph system 142 assigning the task ofuploading or classifying entities to an undefined set of users. Usersmay add, modify, or delete classifications online. An example of offlinecrowd sourcing may include assigning the task of uploading orclassifying entities to an undefined public not using the network 105.

Performance data 126 can include, for example, information about howwell an application performs an action. Performance 126 can include, forexample, information about how well an application performs an action onan entity. Performance data 126 can be based on historical performanceor uses. Performance data 126 can be based on feedback or ratings.Performance data 126 can be in the form of metrics, such as qualitymetrics, latency metrics, time metrics, memory usage metrics, processorusage metrics, network bandwidth usage. Performance metrics can indicatethe amount of time the application takes to perform the action, or theamount of time the application takes to launch. Performance data 126 canindicate a level of efficiency of the application when performing anaction. The action can be an action identified via the APK file oraction-inventory file that has been indexed or mapped to theapplication. Performance metrics can include values (e.g., memoryconsumption values, processor utilization values, or time) oralphanumeric indicators. Performance metrics can include a scale, grade,range or spectrum, such as low, medium, high, or a scale of 1 to 10, ora grading system such as A, B, C, D, F. The data processing system 102can use the performance metrics to select or rank applications fordelivery.

Additional performance information 126 can indicate errors or failuresassociated with an application. For example, if an application, via anAPK file or action-inventory file, indicates that it can perform acertain type of action on a certain type of entity, but the applicationcrashes, fails or has errors when attempting to perform the action onthe entity, then the data processing system 102 can store the error login the performance data structure 126 in data repository 118. The dataprocessing system 102 can determine that the application may not beconfigured, capable or otherwise operational to perform the action onthe entity contrary to what was indicated in the action-inventory file.Thus, the data processing system 102 can determine to update the index122 to remove a mapping or link between the application and thecorresponding action and entity responsive to determining that theapplication is unable to perform the action on the entity to asatisfactory level (e.g., crashes, errors, excessive delay, latency, orvery low quality such as sound quality or video resolution). The dataprocessing system 102 can provide an indication, notification or alertto the developer computing device 106 that provided the application toallow the developer to update the application or action-inventory fileto resolve or remedy the error. The data processing system 102 can usethe error logs stored in the performance data structure 126 to determineto block selection of the application to perform the action on theentity contrary to the action-inventory file that indicates that theapplication is configured to perform the action on the entity.

The data repository 118 can store profile information 128. Profileinformation can include or refer to information associated with acomputing device 104. Profile information can include or refer toinformation associated with an account configured on the computingdevice 104. Profile information can indicate a configuration of acomputing device 104 or account activated on the computing device 104.Profile information can indicate which applications are installed on thecomputing device 104, or which applications are available or accessibleto the computing device 104. Profile information can include or indicateentities that are stored on or accessible to the computing device 104.Profile information can include or indicate user preferences forapplications, actions, or entities.

The data processing system 102 can interface, access, use or otherwisecommunicate with a search engine system 146. A search engine 146 canrefer to or include a system that crawls web pages or web sites on theInternet in order to index the web pages and store the index in adatabase. A search engine system 146 can include one or more programsthat searches and identifies items in the database that correspond tokeywords or characters specified in an input to the search engine.

The data processing system 102 can interface, access, use or otherwisecommunicate with a web server 144. Web servers 144 can host web sites orweb pages. Web servers 144 can host web sites developed by a developercomputing device 106 and published on the Internet. For example, thedeveloper computing device 106 can markup using a structured datatagging scheme a web page to indicate entities on which the applicationprovided by the developer computing device 106 can perform an action.

The interface 110, natural language processor component 112, applicationintake component 114 or application delivery component 116 can eachinclude at least one processing unit or other logic device such asprogrammable logic array engine, or module configured to communicatewith the database repository or data repository 118. The interface 110,natural language processor component 112, application intake component114, application delivery component 116 and data repository 118 can beseparate components, a single component, or part of the data processingsystem 102. The system 100 and its components, such as a data processingsystem 102, can include hardware elements, such as one or moreprocessors, logic devices, or circuits.

The data processing system 102 can obtain anonymous computer networkactivity information associated with a plurality of computing devices104. A user of a computing device 104 can affirmatively authorize thedata processing system 102 to obtain network activity informationcorresponding to the user's computing device 104. For example, the dataprocessing system 102 can prompt the user of the computing device 104for consent to obtain one or more types of network activity information.The identity of the user of the computing device 104 can remainanonymous and the computing device 104 can be associated with a uniqueidentifier (e.g., a unique identifier for the user or the computingdevice provided by the data processing system or a user of the computingdevice). The data processing system can associate each observation witha corresponding unique identifier.

The data processing system 102 can include an interface component 110designed, configured, constructed, or operational to receive andtransmit information using, for example, data packets. The interface 110can receive and transmit information using one or more protocols, suchas a network protocol. The interface 110 can include a hardwareinterface, software interface, wired interface, or wireless interface.The interface 110 can facilitate translating or formatting data from oneformat to another format. For example, the interface 110 can include anapplication programming interface that includes definitions forcommunicating between various components, such as software components.

The data processing system 102 can include an application intakecomponent 114 designed, constructed, configured, or operational toreceive an application package file and an associated action-inventoryfile, and process the action-inventory file to identify one or moreelectronic actions the mobile application performs and a correspondingone or more entities on which the application performs the electronicaction. The application intake component 114 can provide a userinterface, graphical user interface, or other mechanism by which adeveloper computing device 106 can transfer the application package fileand an associated action-inventory file. For example, the developercomputing device 106 can upload the application package file via aninterface 110 of the data processing system 102. The data processingsystem 102 can retrieve the application package file from a location onthe developer computing device 106.

The data processing system 102 can receive multiple application filesfrom multiple developer computing devices 106. The application packagefiles can include instructions to distribute and install theapplications on computing devices 104. The instructions can include orrefer to software code, an executable file, programs, scripts, orfunctions. The application package file can further provide criteria orsystem requirements that are to be met in order for the application toexecute on a computing device 104. For example, the application packagefile can specify compatibility information such as a type of operatingsystem, type of computing device, required interfaces (e.g., keyboard,mouse, touch screen, sensors, display, speaker, microphone), processorrequirements, storage requirements, or memory requirements. Theapplication delivery component 116 can use the compatibility informationselect an application to deliver to the computing device 104.

Each application package file can be associated with an action-inventoryfile. The action-inventory file can indicate the types of actions theapplication is configured to perform. Actions can be referred to aselectronic actions as they are performed by a program executed on acomputing device. Actions can include, for example, playing audio, playvideo, multimedia, providing recipes providing news, providing weatherinformation, ordering a ride sharing service, e-commerce, purchasingtickets, etc.

The action-inventory file can further indicate entities on which theapplication is configured to perform an action. The set of entities canbe referred to as an inventory of the application. The action-inventoryfile can be a data file, text file, comma delimited file, table, datastructure or any other file or be in any format configured to indicatethe action and inventory information. The action-inventory file formatcan an extensible markup language XML file, such as a metalanguage whichallows users to define their own customized markup languages.

The action-inventory file can include a pointer to a list of entities.The action-inventory file can include a uniform resource locator to aweb page established via a developer computing device, and the dataprocessing system 102 can determine an inventory of entities from theweb page of the developer computing device. The action-inventory filecan include a reference, pointer, URL or other indication to a list ofentities. For example, the action-inventory file may not itself storethe list of entities on which the application is configured to performthe one or more actions, but may include a link to a web page or website or other data file separate from or stored remotely from theaction-inventory file. For example, the action-inventory file caninclude a set of actions, but then include a URL to a web page thatindicates entities on which the application can perform the action. Forexample, the action can be “play music”, and the inventory of entities(e.g., song catalog) can be stored on a web page (e.g., hosted by webserver 144). By storing the inventory of entities on a web page, thedeveloper computing device 106 can update the inventory list withouthaving to provide a new action-inventory file or application packagefile to the data processing system 102, thereby reducing the number oftimes the application intake process is performed by the data processingsystem 102, which can reduce processor utilization by the dataprocessing system 102.

The data processing system 102 can parse or process the action-inventoryfile to identify a link or reference to a web page. The web page cancontain structured data. Structured data can refer to a web page withadditional markup to the HTML page to allow bots, spiders or webcrawlers to better understand information on the web page. The dataprocessing system 102 (e.g., via the application intake component 114)can parse or process the structured data of the web page to identify aninventory of entities that the developer indicates are available to theapplication and the application can use to perform the action. Thestructured data can indicate information about the entities, such as aunique identifier of the entity (e.g., a domain, property and type), analphanumeric identifier of the entity, a description of the entity,keywords associated with the entity, or other information.

The data processing system 102 can leverage the structured data on theweb page to identify an entity, and further leverage the entity graphsystem 142 to identify additional information about the entity. Forexample, the data processing system 102 can parse the structured data toidentify the entity, and then access the entity graph system 142 toobtain additional information about the entity. The structured data onthe web page may include a unique identifier of the entity, which thedata processing system 102 can use to identify, via the entity graphsystem 142, additional entities associated with the identified entity.For example, the entity “Artist_A” can be identified from the web page,however the data processing system 102 can query the entity graph system142 to identify albums, songs, concerts, tickets, or bands associatedwith “Artist_A”.

In some cases, the web page may not provide the unique identifier of theentity, in which case the data processing system 102 can process the webpage to identify a keyword or a candidate entity, and then query theentity graph system 142 to determine the unique entity identifier alongwith information associated with the entity. For example, the web pagemay not include or lack a structured inventory of entities. The dataprocessing system 102 can determine the web page lacks the structuredinventory of entities based on determining that a structured identifierpattern is absent from the web page. The data processing system 102 canthen determine that the web page contains information that is notstructured, and then leverage the entity graph system 142 to determinewhat entities are available on the web page by querying the entity graphsystem 142 with keywords or terms identified on the web page todetermine a corresponding entity in the entity graph system 142. Thedata processing system 102 can combine or consolidate unstructured dataon a web page with structured data of an entity graph system 142 toidentify an entity and associated entities. Thus, the data processingsystem 102 can process action-inventory file, structured data from a webpage, or unstructured data from a web page identified in theaction-inventory file to identify an inventory of entities for theapplication as well as actions the application is configured to performor execute.

The data processing system 102 can store, in index 122, the inventory ofentities of the application along with actions the application canperform on the entities. The index 122 can include an identifier of theapplication, such as a unique application identifier (e.g., alphanumericidentifier). The index 122 can associate the application identifier withan action and corresponding entities or inventory of entities. Theapplication can be configured to perform one or more actions on one ormore entities.

Thus, the data processing system 102 can receive, for an application,the action-inventory file including a uniform resource locator to webpage having a structured markup of entities. The data processing system102 can access the web page via the uniform resource locator, and thenparse the web page with the structured markup of entities to identify aninventory of entities. The data processing system 102 can associate, ina database, the inventory of entities with the at least one of theplurality of applications.

The application intake component 114 can perform a validation or errorchecking process to validate or determine whether the application canperform the actions on the entities. For example, the data processingsystem 102 can select an action and an entity and instruct theapplication to perform the action on the entity. If the applicationfails, crashes, has a delay, utilizes excessive memory, storage orprocessing, the data processing system 102 can determine that theapplication is not configured to perform the action on the entity orfails a quality check process. The data processing system 102 candisable the action or the entity for the application responsive tofailure of the quality check process. The data processing system 102 candisable the application entirely for subsequent delivery. The dataprocessing system 102 can remove (or block the addition of) theassociation between the application and the action or the entity in theindex 122. The data processing system 102 can notify the developercomputing device 106 of the error to allow the developer to remedy orresolve the error.

The data processing system 102 can include an application, script orprogram installed at the client computing device 104, such as an app tocommunicate input audio signals to the interface 110 of the dataprocessing system 102 and to drive components of the client computingdevice to render output audio signals. The data processing system 102can receive data packets or other signal that includes or identifies anaudio input signal. For example, the data processing system 102 canexecute or run the NLP component 112 to receive or obtain the audiosignal and parse the audio signal. For example, the NLP component 112can provide for interactions between a human and a computer. The NLPcomponent 112 can be configured with techniques for understandingnatural language and allowing the data processing system 102 to derivemeaning from human or natural language input. The NLP component 112 caninclude or be configured with technique based on machine learning, suchas statistical machine learning. The NLP component 112 can utilizedecision trees, statistical models, or probabilistic models to parse theinput audio signal. The NLP component 112 can perform, for example,functions such as named entity recognition (e.g., given a stream oftext, determine which items in the text map to proper names, such aspeople or places, and what the type of each such name is, such asperson, location, or organization), natural language generation (e.g.,convert information from computer databases or semantic intents intounderstandable human language), natural language understanding (e.g.,convert text into more formal representations such as first-order logicstructures that a computer module can manipulate), machine translation(e.g., automatically translate text from one human language to another),morphological segmentation (e.g., separating words into individualmorphemes and identify the class of the morphemes, which can bechallenging based on the complexity of the morphology or structure ofthe words of the language being considered), question answering (e.g.,determining an answer to a human-language question, which can bespecific or open-ended), semantic processing (e.g., processing that canoccur after identifying a word and encoding its meaning in order torelate the identified word to other words with similar meanings).

The NLP component 112 converts the audio input signal into recognizedtext by comparing the input signal against a stored, representative setof audio waveforms (e.g., in the data repository 118) and choosing theclosest matches. The set of audio waveforms can be stored in datarepository 118 or other database accessible to the data processingsystem 102. The representative waveforms are generated across a largeset of users, and then may be augmented with speech samples from theuser. After the audio signal is converted into recognized text, the NLPcomponent 112 matches the text to words that are associated, for examplevia training across users or through manual specification, with actionsthat the data processing system 102 can serve.

The audio input signal can be detected by the sensor 134 or transducer136 (e.g., a microphone) of the client computing device 104. Via thetransducer 136, the audio driver 138, or other components the clientcomputing device 104 can provide the audio input signal to the dataprocessing system 102 (e.g., via the network 105) where it can bereceived (e.g., by the interface 110) and provided to the NLP component112 or stored in the data repository 118.

The NLP component 112 can obtain the input audio signal. From the inputaudio signal, the NLP component 112 can identify at least one request orat least one trigger keyword corresponding to the request. The requestcan indicate intent or subject matter of the input audio signal. Thetrigger keyword can indicate a type of action likely to be taken. Forexample, the NLP component 112 can parse the input audio signal toidentify at least one request to leave home for the evening to attenddinner and a movie. The trigger keyword can include at least one word,phrase, root or partial word, or derivative indicating an action to betaken. For example, the trigger keyword “go” or “to go to” from theinput audio signal can indicate a need for transport. In this example,the input audio signal (or the identified request) does not directlyexpress an intent for transport, however the trigger keyword indicatesthat transport is an ancillary action to at least one other action thatis indicated by the request.

The NLP component 112 can parse the input audio signal to identify,determine, retrieve, or otherwise obtain the request and the triggerkeyword. For instance, the NLP component 112 can apply a semanticprocessing technique to the input audio signal to identify the triggerkeyword or the request. The NLP component 112 can apply the semanticprocessing technique to the input audio signal to identify a triggerphrase that includes one or more trigger keywords, such as a firsttrigger keyword and a second trigger keyword. For example, the inputaudio signal can include the sentence “I need someone to do my laundryand my dry cleaning.” The NLP component 112 can apply a semanticprocessing technique, or other natural language processing technique, tothe data packets comprising the sentence to identify trigger phrases “domy laundry” and “do my dry cleaning”. The NLP component 112 can furtheridentify multiple trigger keywords, such as laundry, and dry cleaning.For example, the NLP component 112 can determine that the trigger phraseincludes the trigger keyword and a second trigger keyword.

The NLP component 112 can identify search queries or trigger phrasescorresponding to performing a search or other request for information.The NLP component 112 can determine that the input audio signalcorresponds to a request for information about a topic, event, currentevent, news event, dictionary definition, historical event, person,place or thing. For example, the NLP component 112 can determine thatthe input audio signal corresponds to a search query for informationabout a historical event, such as “When did the American Revolution takeplace?”

The NLP component 112 can filter the input audio signal to identify thekeywords, search query, or trigger keyword. For example, the datapackets carrying the input audio signal can include “It would be greatif I could get someone that could help me go to the airport”, in whichcase the NLP component 112 can filter out one or more terms as follows:“it”, “would”, “be”, “great”, “if”, “I”, “could”, “get”, “someone”,“that”, “could”, or “help”. By filtering out these terms, the NLPcomponent 112 may more accurately and reliably identify the triggerkeywords, such as “go to the airport” and determine that this is arequest for a taxi or a ride sharing service.

In another example, the data packets carrying the input audio signal caninclude “Can you please play song123 by Artist_A”, in which case the NLPcomponent 112 can filter out one or more terms as follows: “can”, “you”,“please”. By filtering out these terms, the NLP component 112 may moreaccurately and reliably identify the trigger keywords, the intent, theaction, and the entity. For example, the intent can be to play music,the action can be “play” and the entity can be “song123 by Artist_A.”Thus, the natural language processing component 112 can determine theintent by parsing and analyzing the input audio signal or data packetscarrying the input audio signal in order to determine the action and theentity on which to perform the action. The data processing system 102can identify the entity from the input audio signal based on a graphdatabase provided by an entity graph system 142 comprising ahierarchical taxonomy of entities each having a unique identifier formedof a domain, type and property.

In another example, the data packets carrying the input audio signal caninclude “Can Application_A please play song123 by Artist_A”, in whichcase the NLP component 112 can filter out one or more terms as follows:“can” and “please”. By filtering out these terms, the NLP component 112may more accurately and reliably identify the trigger keywords, theintent, the action, the entity, and the request application. Forexample, the intent can be to play music, the action can be “play”, theentity can be “song123 by Artist_A”, and the application the user isrequesting to perform the action on the entity can be “Application_A”.Thus, the natural language processing component 112 can determine theintent by parsing and analyzing the input audio signal or data packetscarrying the input audio signal in order to determine application toperform the action, and the entity on which the application is toperform the action.

Thus, the data processing system 102 (e.g., via the interface 110 andnatural language processor component 112) can receive data packetsincluding an input audio signal detected by a sensor of a client device,and then parse the input audio signal to identify an action and anentity on which to perform the action. The data processing system 102can identify an intent, which can be formed of, or based on, the actionand the entity. The input audio signal can indicate the application toperform the action on the entity, and the data processing system 102 canidentify the application from the input audio signal.

The data processing system 102 can include, execute, or otherwisecommunicate with an application delivery component 116 to identify anapplication that can execute the action and the entity identified fromthe input audio signal, and then provide an indication to the clientdevice or otherwise cause the application to execute the action on theentity. For example, the application delivery component 116 can identifya first one or more applications configured to perform the actionidentified from the input audio signal, a second one or moreapplications of the plurality of applications configured with access tothe entity identified from the input audio signal, and select, from thefirst one or more applications and the second one or more applications,an application configured to perform the action and access the entityidentified from the input audio signal. The data processing system 102can then provide, to the client device, an indication of the applicationselected by the data processing system to cause the client device toinitiate execution of the application to perform the action using theentity identified in the input audio signal.

The application delivery component 116 can perform the selection inreal-time. The real-time selection process can be performed (e.g.,initiated or completed) within a time interval of receiving the request(e.g., 1 second, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20minutes). The real-time content selection process can be performedduring a communication session with the client computing device 104, orwithin a time interval after the communication session is terminated.

To select an application to execute the action on the entity, the dataprocessing system 102 can identify applications that are configured toperform the action. The data processing system 102 can identify theapplications that can perform the action using one or more system ortechnique. For example, the data processing system 102 can perform alookup in the index 122 to identify applications that are associatedwith the action identified from the input audio signal. The dataprocessing system 102 can determine, responsive to the lookup in theindex 122, unique application identifiers.

The data processing system 102 can input a query into the search engine146 to identify applications. For example, the data processing system102 can input the action into a search engine 146. The data processingsystem 102 can construct or generate a query based on the action toidentify applications. For example, the query can be “what applicationscan perform <action>?” or “what applications can perform <action> on<entity>?” or “identify applications that can perform <action> on<computing device type>”. The data processing system 102 can receive theresults of the search. The data processing system 102 can process theresults to identify one or more applications that can perform theaction.

Thus, the data processing system 102 can identify the action usingstructured data stored in the index 122, as well as unstructured websearch results from the search engine 146 to identify one or moreapplications that are configured to perform the action. The dataprocessing system 102 can consolidate the results into a first set ofapplications that are configured to perform the action.

The data processing system 102 can further identify which applicationsare configured to perform the action on the entity. The data processingsystem 102 can perform a lookup in index 122 using the entity identifierto determine which applications are associated with the entity. The dataprocessing system 102 can input a query into a search engine todetermine which applications can access the entity. For example, thedata processing system 102 can construct a query such as “whatapplications have <entity>?”.

In some cases, the data processing system 102 can execute or perform asingle lookup or search to identify applications that perform the actionon the entity, while in some cases the data processing system 102 canfirst identify applications that perform the action, and then identifyapplications that have access to the entity, and then identify whichapplications are in both sets of results. For example, the dataprocessing system 102 can construct a query such as “what applicationscan perform <action> on <entity>?”

Thus, the data processing system 102 can execute a web search via asearch engine 146 based on at least one of the action and the entityidentified from the input audio signal, identify at least one of thefirst one or more applications or the second one or more applicationsbased on results of the web search output by the search engine. The dataprocessing system can identify the entity from the input audio signalbased on a graph database provided by an entity graph system 142including a hierarchical taxonomy of entities each having a uniqueidentifier formed of a domain, type and property. The data processingsystem 102 can identify the first one or more applications or the secondone or more applications based on a web search using the entityidentified from the entity graph system 142. In some cases, the dataprocessing system 102 can identify a set of actions configured for theentity using the index 122. The data processing system can identify thesecond one or more applications based on the set of actions configuredfor the entity.

The data processing system 102 can identify a first set of applicationsthat are configured to perform the action, and a second set ofapplications that are configured to access the entity. The second set ofapplications can be identified independently from the process used toidentify the first set of applications. For example, to reduce latencyand delays due to computing processes, the data processing system 102can execute multiple processes or queries in parallel. The dataprocessing system 102 can identify the first set of applications thatare configured to perform the action and in a parallel or overlappingprocess identify a second set of applications that are configured toaccess the entity.

In some cases, the data processing system 102 can identify the first setof applications and the second set of applications serially. Forexample, the data processing system 102 can identify the first set ofapplications that are configured to perform the action, and thenidentify, from the first set of applications, which of the first set ofapplications have access to the entity in order to generate the set ofapplications that can perform the action on the entity. The dataprocessing system 102 can reduce memory or storage utilization byperforming the second search or process related to the entities on thefirst set of applications, which can be a subset of all availableapplications.

In some cases, the data processing system 102 can perform a singleprocess or query to identify applications that are configured to performthe action on the entity. For example, the data processing system canperform a lookup with multiple values (e.g., action and entity) or inputa search query into search engine with multiple requests.

The data processing system 102 can consolidate results obtained fromperforming a lookup in the index 122 with results from the search engine146. The data processing system 102 can validate the results from thesearch engine 146 by confirming whether the application can perform theaction on the entity.

If the data processing system 102 identifies multiple applications thatcan perform the action on the entity, the data processing system 102 canprovide an indication of the multiple applications to the computingdevice 104 to allow a user of the computing device 104 to select one ofthe applications. If the data processing system 102 identifies multipleapplications that can perform the action on the entity, the dataprocessing system 102 can rank the multiple application to suggest oneor more of the applications. For example, the data processing system 102can execute a web search via a search engine 146 based on at least oneof the action and the entity identified from the input audio signal toidentify a second plurality of applications. The data processing system102 can then rank each of the second plurality of applications, scoreeach of the second plurality of applications based on performancefeedback associated with the action, or score each of the secondplurality of applications based on historical preference information.The data processing system 102 can select a highest ranking or scoringapplication from the second plurality of application as the applicationfor which to provide the indication to the client device.

The data processing system 102 can rank the multiple applications usingvarious criteria. For example, the data processing system 102 can useperformance information stored in the performance data structure 126 torank the applications. The data processing system 102 can score eachapplication based on the performance metrics. For example, the dataprocessing system 102 can assign the highest performing application withthe highest rank, the second highest performing application with thesecond highest rank, and so on.

For example, the data processing system 102 can determine that anapplication is the highest performing application based on feedback orratings associated with the application, or performance metrics (e.g.,least latency, fastest launch time, least memory or process or bandwidthutilization). If the data processing system 102 determines that theapplication performance is below a threshold (e.g., feedback rating orother performance metrics), the data processing system 102 can removethe application and determine not to suggest the application or includethe application in the ranking. In some cases, the data processingsystem 102 can determine to provide or suggest only the top N rankingapplications (e.g., the top 3 ranking application, top 2 applications,or top 5 applications).

The data processing system 102 can determine which applications areinstalled on the computing device 104. The data processing system 102can rank the applications based on which applications are alreadyinstalled on the computing device 104, thereby avoiding the need for thecomputing device 104 to download and install a new application. Thus,the top ranking applications from the identified set of applications canbe the applications that are already installed on the computing device104. If no applications from the identified set of applications areinstalled on the computing device 104, then the data processing system102 can proceed to rank the applications based on performance, and thenprovide an indication to the computing device 104 to install anapplication from the ranked list in order to execute the action on theentity.

If the input audio signal includes an indication of the application, thedata processing system 102 identify, from the input audio signal, theapplication and select the application based on the first one or moreapplications, the second one or more applications, and the input audiosignal. For example, the data processing system 102 can determinewhether the application identified in the input audio signal is includedamong the set of application identified by the data processing system102 that are configured to perform the action on the entity, and then,upon identifying the match, select the application for execution.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an operation 200 of the system 100 toconsolidate disparate data source queries. The system can include one ormore component of system 100 depicted in FIG. 1, including, for example,a computing device 104 and a data processing system 102. At 205, thedata processing system 102 can receive the input audio signal detectedby the computing device 104. The data processing system 102 can receivedata packets comprising the input audio signal or indications of theinput audio signal. The data processing system 102 can receivepre-processed terms, keywords, or phrases from the input audio signal.The data processing system 102 can receive a filtered version of theinput audios signal.

At 210, the data processing system 102 can parse the received inputaudio signal (or received pre-processed or filtered version of the inputaudio signal). The data processing system 102 can parse the receiveddata to identify an action and an entity in the input audio signal. Thedata processing system can use one or more processing techniques,machine learning, or natural language processing techniques to parse thedata corresponding to the input audio signal. The data processing system102 can parse the data to identify an action and an entity. The actioncan be performed on the entity. In some cases, the input audio signalcan also include an indication of an application to use to perform theaction on the entity.

The data processing system 102, to identify the action or entity, canquery multiple data sources or databases. The multiple databases or datasources can be different, separate from one another, in differentformats, contain different types of data (e.g., structured versusunstructured data) or other be disparate data sources. At 215, the dataprocessing system can transmit multiple queries to the multipledatabases or data sources including, for example, an entity graph system142, web server 144, search engine system 146, or index 122.

For example, the data processing system 102 can query the entity graphsystem 142 with keywords or terms parsed from the input audio signal at210 in order to determine a corresponding entity. The data processingsystem 102 can query the entity graph system 142 with a uniqueidentifier of an entity in order to determine additional informationabout the entity or identify entities associated with the entity.

The data processing system 102 can query the web server 144 responsiveto identifying, in the index 122, a pointer to a web page with a list ofentities or an inventory of entities. For example, the data processingsystem 102 can identify an action in the input audio signal, perform alookup in the index 122 to identify an application configured to performthe action. The data processing system 102 can then identify theaction-inventory file associated with the APK file of the application.The action-inventory file can include a pointer or reference to a webpage hosted by web server 144 that includes or indicates an inventory ofentities for which the application can perform the action. Thus, thedata processing system 102 can crawl or parse the web page to identifythe inventory of entities.

The data processing system 102 can query a search engine 146 to identifyapplications. The data processing system 102 can construct a searchquery to identify application that can perform the action determined at210 by parsing the input audio signal. The data processing system canconstruct a search query to identify an application that can perform theaction on the entity determined at 210 by parsing the input audiosignal.

At 215, the data processing system 102 can receive responses to themultiple queries transmitted to the multiple databases, systems or datasources. At 220, the data processing system can consolidate theresponses to generate, identify or determine one or more applicationsthat are configured to perform the action on the entity requested orindicated in the input audio signal. Consolidating the responses canrefer to or include identifying a first set of applications that areconfigured to perform the action, a second set of applications that areconfigured to access the entity, and a final set of applications thatare included in both the first and second sets that are configured toperform the action on the entity.

Consolidating the responses can refer to or include generatingadditional queries based on responses. For example, the data processingsystem 102 can query the index 122 to perform a lookup using the actionto identify a set of applications. The data processing system 102 canalso query the search engine 146 using the action to identifyapplications via a search engine results page. Thus, the data processingsystem 102 can query two different databases, data sources or systems inorder to identify applications that can perform the action. The dataprocessing system 102 can determine, via the search engine 146, that thetop ranking applications that perform the action are Application_A andApplication_B. The data processing system 102 can determine, via alookup in the index 122, that there are twenty different applicationsthat indicate, via respective action-inventory files, that they areconfigured to perform the action. The data processing system 102 candetermine to rank, score or weight the Application_A and Application_Bhigher based on the search engine results from search engine 146.

In another example of consolidating queries, the data processing system102 can query the index 122 with the action and entity to identifyapplications that can perform the action on the entity. The dataprocessing system 102 can also identify, via the lookup, a pointer to aweb page hosted by web server 144. The data processing system 102 canthen access the web page on the web server 144 to crawl the web page toidentify entities listed on the web page and generate an inventory ofentities for the application. The data processing system 102 canconsolidate the list of entities determine from the web page along withthe entities associated with the application in the index 122. The dataprocessing system 102 can update the index 122 to include entitiesobtained from parsing the web page.

By consolidating the responses to the queries from disparate datasources (e.g., different types of data sources with different types ofdata), the data processing system 102 can identify one or moreapplications that are configured to perform the action on the entityrequested in the input audio signal. At 225, the data processing system102 can select an application to perform the action on the entity. Thedata processing 102 can select one or more applications to suggest forperforming the action on the entity. The data processing system 102 canselect the application based on ranking the identified applications orscoring the identified applications. For example, the data processingsystem 102 can rank or score applications based on performanceinformation, preference information, search engine 146 results,feedback, or other factors such as which applications are alreadyinstalled on the computing device 104.

At 230, the data processing system can transmit an indication of theselected application to the computing device 104. In some cases, thedata processing system 102 can transmit the indication including acommand or instruction to cause the computing device to execute theapplication to perform the action on the entity (e.g., launchApplication_A to play song titled “Song_A”) at 235. In some cases, thedata processing system 102 can transmit an indication including multiplesuggest application that the computing device 104 can present to a user(e.g., via a display or audio interface), and then the use can select anapplication to launch or execute on the computing device 104 at 235.

In some cases, the indication can include a deep link to the entitywithin the application. Selecting the deep link can cause theapplication to launch and direct the application to open or execute theentity within the application.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example method for consolidatingdisparate data sources. The method 300 can be performed by one or morecomponent, system or element of system 100, 200 or system 400. Themethod 300 can include receiving and processing application packagefiles at 305. The data processing system can receive the applicationpackage files from a plurality of developer computing devices. Theapplication package files can include instructions to distribute andinstall a plurality of applications on a plurality of computing devices.Each of the application package files can be associated with anaction-inventory file. The data processing system can process theaction-inventory file to identify one or more electronic actions theapplication performs and corresponding one or more entities on which theapplication performs the one or more electronic actions.

At 310, the data processing system can receive and parse an input audiosignal. The data processing system can receive, via an interface of thedata processing system, data packets corresponding to the input audiosignal detected by a sensor of a client device. The data processingsystem can parse (e.g., via a natural language processing technique) theinput audio signal to identify an action and an entity on which toperform the action.

At 315, the data processing system can identify one or more applicationsbased on the action and entity. The data processing system can identifya first one or more applications configured to perform the actionidentified from the input audio signal. The data processing system canidentify, based on the action-inventory file, a second one or moreapplications of the plurality of applications that can access the entityidentified from the input audio signal. At 320, the data processingsystem can select, from the first one or more applications and thesecond one or more applications, an application configured to performthe action and access the entity identified from the input audio signal(e.g., based on a ranking or scoring process).

At 325, the data processing system can provide an indication of theselected application. The data processing system can provide, to theclient device, an indication of the application selected by the dataprocessing system to cause the client device to initiate execution ofthe application to perform the action using the entity identified in theinput audio signal. The indication can include a deep link to the entityof the application to cause the client computing device to execute orlaunch the deep link to open the application directly to a view orportion of the application containing the entity.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example computer system 400. Thecomputer system or computing device 400 can include or be used toimplement the system 100, or its components such as the data processingsystem 102. The computing system 400 includes a bus 405 or othercommunication component for communicating information and a processor410 or processing circuit coupled to the bus 405 for processinginformation. The computing system 400 can also include one or moreprocessors 410 or processing circuits coupled to the bus for processinginformation. The computing system 400 also includes main memory 415,such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device,coupled to the bus 405 for storing information, and instructions to beexecuted by the processor 410. The main memory 415 can be or include thedata repository 118. The main memory 415 can also be used for storingposition information, temporary variables, or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions by the processor 410. Thecomputing system 400 may further include a read only memory (ROM) 420 orother static storage device coupled to the bus 405 for storing staticinformation and instructions for the processor 410. A storage device425, such as a solid state device, magnetic disk or optical disk, can becoupled to the bus 405 to persistently store information andinstructions. The storage device 425 can include or be part of the datarepository 118.

The computing system 400 may be coupled via the bus 405 to a display435, such as a liquid crystal display, or active matrix display, fordisplaying information to a user. An input device 430, such as akeyboard including alphanumeric and other keys, may be coupled to thebus 405 for communicating information and command selections to theprocessor 410. The input device 430 can include a touch screen display435. The input device 430 can also include a cursor control, such as amouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys, for communicatingdirection information and command selections to the processor 410 andfor controlling cursor movement on the display 435. The display 435 canbe part of the data processing system 102, the client computing device104 or other component of FIG. 1, for example.

The processes, systems and methods described herein can be implementedby the computing system 400 in response to the processor 410 executingan arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 415. Suchinstructions can be read into main memory 415 from anothercomputer-readable medium, such as the storage device 425. Execution ofthe arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 415 causes thecomputing system 400 to perform the illustrative processes describedherein. One or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement mayalso be employed to execute the instructions contained in main memory415. Hard-wired circuitry can be used in place of or in combination withsoftware instructions together with the systems and methods describedherein. Systems and methods described herein are not limited to anyspecific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

Although an example computing system has been described in FIG. 4, thesubject matter including the operations described in this specificationcan be implemented in other types of digital electronic circuitry, or incomputer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structuresdisclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or incombinations of one or more of them.

For situations in which the systems discussed herein collect personalinformation about users, or may make use of personal information, theusers may be provided with an opportunity to control whether programs orfeatures that may collect personal information (e.g., information abouta user's social network, social actions or activities, a user'spreferences, or a user's location), or to control whether or how toreceive content from a content server or other data processing systemthat may be more relevant to the user. In addition, certain data may beanonymized in one or more ways before it is stored or used, so thatpersonally identifiable information is removed when generatingparameters. For example, a user's identity may be anonymized so that nopersonally identifiable information can be determined for the user, or auser's geographic location may be generalized where location informationis obtained (such as to a city, postal code, or state level), so that aparticular location of a user cannot be determined. Thus, the user mayhave control over how information is collected about him or her and usedby the content server.

The subject matter and the operations described in this specificationcan be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computersoftware, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed inthis specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinationsof one or more of them. The subject matter described in thisspecification can be implemented as one or more computer programs, e.g.,one or more circuits of computer program instructions, encoded on one ormore computer storage media for execution by, or to control theoperation of, data processing apparatuses. Alternatively or in addition,the program instructions can be encoded on an artificially generatedpropagated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, orelectromagnetic signal that is generated to encode information fortransmission to suitable receiver apparatus for execution by a dataprocessing apparatus. A computer storage medium can be, or be includedin, a computer-readable storage device, a computer-readable storagesubstrate, a random or serial access memory array or device, or acombination of one or more of them. While a computer storage medium isnot a propagated signal, a computer storage medium can be a source ordestination of computer program instructions encoded in an artificiallygenerated propagated signal. The computer storage medium can also be, orbe included in, one or more separate components or media (e.g., multipleCDs, disks, or other storage devices). The operations described in thisspecification can be implemented as operations performed by a dataprocessing apparatus on data stored on one or more computer-readablestorage devices or received from other sources.

The terms “data processing system” “computing device” “component” or“data processing apparatus” encompass various apparatuses, devices, andmachines for processing data, including by way of example a programmableprocessor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multiple ones, orcombinations of the foregoing. The apparatus can include special purposelogic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or anASIC (application specific integrated circuit). The apparatus can alsoinclude, in addition to hardware, code that creates an executionenvironment for the computer program in question, e.g., code thatconstitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database managementsystem, an operating system, a cross-platform runtime environment, avirtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them. The apparatusand execution environment can realize various different computing modelinfrastructures, such as web services, distributed computing and gridcomputing infrastructures. The application intake component 114,application delivery component 116, or NLP component 112 and other dataprocessing system 102 components can include or share one or more dataprocessing apparatuses, systems, computing devices, or processors.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, app, script, or code) can be written in any form ofprogramming language, including compiled or interpreted languages,declarative or procedural languages, and can be deployed in any form,including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component,subroutine, object, or other unit suitable for use in a computingenvironment. A computer program can correspond to a file in a filesystem. A computer program can be stored in a portion of a file thatholds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in amarkup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program inquestion, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store oneor more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer programcan be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computersthat are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification can beperformed by one or more programmable processors executing one or morecomputer programs (e.g., components of the data processing system 102)to perform actions by operating on input data and generating output. Theprocesses and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatuses canalso be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA(field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application specificintegrated circuit). Devices suitable for storing computer programinstructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, mediaand memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memorydevices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks,e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto optical disks; andCD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can besupplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

The subject matter described herein can be implemented in a computingsystem that includes a back end component, e.g., as a data server, orthat includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, orthat includes a front end component, e.g., a client computer having agraphical user interface or a web browser through which a user caninteract with an implementation of the subject matter described in thisspecification, or a combination of one or more such back end,middleware, or front end components. The components of the system can beinterconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication,e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networksinclude a local area network (“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), aninter-network (e.g., the Internet), and peer-to-peer networks (e.g., adhoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system such as system 100 or system 400 can includeclients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from eachother and typically interact through a communication network (e.g., thenetwork 105). The relationship of client and server arises by virtue ofcomputer programs running on the respective computers and having aclient-server relationship to each other. In some implementations, aserver transmits data (e.g., data packets representing a digitalcomponent) to a client device (e.g., for purposes of displaying data toand receiving user input from a user interacting with the clientdevice). Data generated at the client device (e.g., a result of the userinteraction) can be received from the client device at the server (e.g.,received by the data processing system 102 from the computing device 104or the developer computing device 106).

While operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order,such operations are not required to be performed in the particular ordershown or in sequential order, and all illustrated operations are notrequired to be performed. Actions described herein can be performed in adifferent order.

The separation of various system components does not require separationin all implementations, and the described program components can beincluded in a single hardware or software product. For example, the NLPcomponent 112 or the application delivery component 116, can be a singlecomponent, app, or program, or a logic device having one or moreprocessing circuits, or part of one or more servers of the dataprocessing system 102.

Having now described some illustrative implementations, it is apparentthat the foregoing is illustrative and not limiting, having beenpresented by way of example. In particular, although many of theexamples presented herein involve specific combinations of method actsor system elements, those acts and those elements may be combined inother ways to accomplish the same objectives. Acts, elements andfeatures discussed in connection with one implementation are notintended to be excluded from a similar role in other implementations orimplementations.

The phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including” “comprising” “having” “containing” “involving”“characterized by” “characterized in that” and variations thereofherein, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter, equivalentsthereof, and additional items, as well as alternate implementationsconsisting of the items listed thereafter exclusively. In oneimplementation, the systems and methods described herein consist of one,each combination of more than one, or all of the described elements,acts, or components.

Any references to implementations or elements or acts of the systems andmethods herein referred to in the singular may also embraceimplementations including a plurality of these elements, and anyreferences in plural to any implementation or element or act herein mayalso embrace implementations including only a single element. Referencesin the singular or plural form are not intended to limit the presentlydisclosed systems or methods, their components, acts, or elements tosingle or plural configurations. References to any act or element beingbased on any information, act or element may include implementationswhere the act or element is based at least in part on any information,act, or element.

Any implementation disclosed herein may be combined with any otherimplementation or embodiment, and references to “an implementation,”“some implementations,” “one implementation” or the like are notnecessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the implementation may be included in at least one implementationor embodiment. Such terms as used herein are not necessarily allreferring to the same implementation. Any implementation may be combinedwith any other implementation, inclusively or exclusively, in any mannerconsistent with the aspects and implementations disclosed herein.

References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any termsdescribed using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, andall of the described terms. For example, a reference to “at least one of‘A’ and ‘B’” can include only ‘A’, only as well as both ‘A’ and Suchreferences used in conjunction with “comprising” or other openterminology can include additional items.

Where technical features in the drawings, detailed description or anyclaim are followed by reference signs, the reference signs have beenincluded to increase the intelligibility of the drawings, detaileddescription, and claims. Accordingly, neither the reference signs northeir absence have any limiting effect on the scope of any claimelements.

The systems and methods described herein may be embodied in otherspecific forms without departing from the characteristics thereof. Theforegoing implementations are illustrative rather than limiting of thedescribed systems and methods. Scope of the systems and methodsdescribed herein is thus indicated by the appended claims, rather thanthe foregoing description, and changes that come within the meaning andrange of equivalency of the claims are embraced therein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system to consolidate disparate data sourcequeries, comprising: a data processing system comprising one or moreprocessors and memory; an application intake component of the dataprocessing system to: for each of a plurality of action-inventory files,process the action-inventory file to identify one or more electronicactions performed by a respective application associated with theaction-inventory file and corresponding one or more entities on whichthe respective application performs the one or more electronic actions;a natural language processor component of the data processing system to:receive, via an interface of the data processing system and a network,data packets comprising an input audio signal detected by a sensor of aclient device; parse the input audio signal and query a plurality ofdata sources to identify an action and an entity on which to perform theaction; an application delivery component of the data processing systemto: select, based on the action-inventory files, one or moreapplications of the respective applications associated with theaction-inventory files, the one or more applications being configuredwith access to the entity identified from the input audio signal andconfigured to perform the action identified in the input audio signal;and provide, to the client device, an indication of the one or moreapplications selected by the data processing system to cause the clientdevice to initiate execution of the one or more applications to performthe action using the entity identified in the input audio signal.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, comprising: the data processing system to receive theaction-inventory files comprising an extensible markup language file. 3.The system of claim 1, comprising: the data processing system to receivethe action-inventory files comprising a pointer to a list of entities.4. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processing system to:receive, for at least one of the respective, the action-inventory filecomprising a uniform resource locator to a web page established via adeveloper computing device; and determine an inventory of entities fromthe web page of the developer computing device.
 5. The system of claim1, comprising the data processing system to: receive, for at least oneof the respective applications, the action-inventory file comprising auniform resource locator to web page comprising a structured markup ofentities; access the web page via the uniform resource locator; parsethe web page with the structured markup of entities to identify aninventory of entities; associate, in a database, the inventory ofentities with the at least one of the plurality of applications.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, comprising the data processing system to: identify,from the input audio signal, an identified application of the one ormore applications; and select the identified application based on theone or more applications and the input audio signal.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, comprising the data processing system to: execute a web searchvia a search engine based on at least one of the action and the entityidentified from the input audio signal; and identify at least one of theone or more applications based on results of the web search output bythe search engine.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein selecting, based onthe action-inventory files, the one or more applications comprises thedata processing system to: execute a web search via a search enginebased on at least one of the action and the entity identified from theinput audio signal to identify the one or more applications; rank eachof the one or more applications; and select a highest rankingapplication from the one or more applications as the application forwhich to provide the indication to the client device.
 9. The system ofclaim 1, wherein selecting, based on the action-inventory files, the oneor more applications comprises the data processing system to: execute aweb search via a search engine based on at least one of the action andthe entity identified from the input audio signal to identify the one ormore applications; score each of the one or more applications based onperformance feedback associated with the action; and select a highestscoring application from the one or more applications as the applicationfor which to provide the indication to the client device.
 10. The systemof claim 1, wherein selecting, based on the action-inventory files, theone or more applications comprises the data processing system to:execute a web search via a search engine based on at least one of theaction and the entity identified from the input audio signal to identifythe one or more applications; score each of the one or more applicationsbased on historical preference information associated with the clientdevice for the action; and select a highest scoring application from theone or more applications as the application for which to provide theindication to the client device.
 11. The system of claim 1, comprising:the data processing system to identify the entity from the input audiosignal based on a graph database comprising a hierarchical taxonomy ofentities each having a unique identifier formed of a domain, type andproperty.
 12. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processingsystem to: identify the entity from the input audio signal based on agraph database comprising a hierarchical taxonomy of entities eachhaving a unique identifier formed of a domain, type and property; andidentify the one or more applications based on a web search using theentity.
 13. The system of claim 1, comprising: identify the entity fromthe input audio signal based on a graph database comprising ahierarchical taxonomy of entities each having a unique identifier formedof a domain, type and property; identify, via a database, a set ofactions configured for the entity; and identify the one or moreapplications based on the set of actions configured for the entity. 14.A method of consolidating disparate data source queries, comprising: foreach of a plurality of action-inventory files, processing, by a dataprocessing system, the action-inventory file to identify one or moreelectronic actions performed by a respective application associated withthe action-inventory file and corresponding one or more entities onwhich the respective application performs the one or more electronicactions; receiving, via an interface of the data processing system and anetwork, data packets comprising an input audio signal detected by asensor of a client device; parsing, by the data processing system, theinput audio signal and querying a plurality of data sources to identifyan action and an entity on which to perform the action; selecting, bythe data processing system, based on the action-inventory files, one ormore applications of the respective applications associated with theaction-inventory files, the one or more applications being configuredwith access to the entity identified from the input audio signal andconfigured to perform the action identified in the input audio signal;and providing, by the data processing system, to the client device, anindication of the one or more applications selected by the dataprocessing system to cause the client device to initiate execution ofthe one or more applications to perform the action using the entityidentified in the input audio signal.
 15. The method of claim 14,comprising: receiving, by the data processing system, theaction-inventory file comprising an extensible markup language file. 16.The method of claim 14, comprising: receiving, by the data processingsystem, the action-inventory file comprising a pointer to a list ofentities.
 17. The method of claim 14, comprising: receiving, by the dataprocessing system, for at least one of the respective applications, theaction-inventory file comprising a uniform resource locator to a webpage established via a developer computing device; and determining, bythe data processing system, an inventory of entities from the web pageof the developer computing device.
 18. The method of claim 14,comprising: receiving, by the data processing system, for at least oneof the respective applications, the action-inventory file comprising auniform resource locator to web page comprising a structured markup ofentities; accessing, by the data processing system, the web page via theuniform resource locator; parsing, by the data processing system, theweb page with the structured markup of entities to identify an inventoryof entities; and associating, by the data processing system, in adatabase, the inventory of entities with the at least one of theplurality of applications.
 19. The method of claim 14, comprising thedata processing system to: identifying, from the input audio signal, theapplication; and selecting the application based on the one or moreapplications, the second one or more applications, and the input audiosignal.
 20. The method of claim 14, comprising: executing a web searchvia a search engine based on at least one of the action and the entityidentified from the input audio signal; and identifying at least one ofthe one or more applications based on results of the web search outputby the search engine.